Making It Easy to Find the Keys

All too often, keys end up in obscure places where you can't remember having put them. -- MarthaStewart.com

To prevent that problem, you'll want a designated place where your keys are always placed. For me, that's a hook right by the front door - and hooks are a fine option. A small dish, bowl, or tray could work fine, too.

But here are some other options to consider. The one above is a custom key rack by Adirondack Metal Designs. Update on Jan. 19, 2011: The Adirondack Metal Designs web site has disappeared.




Fred Nelson Fabrication can also provide you with an interesting key rack.




A number of products use magnets to provide easy key storage. This one from Peleg Design is called Key Pete; you can buy it from Absolument Design or Perpetual Kid (and others). Of course, you'll want to take proper cautions when using magnets, to ensure they don't damage your credit cards or anything else that might be sensitive to magnetic fields. Update on Feb. 1, 2015: I'm no longer finding this at Perpetual Kid.




Here's a very different magnetic key holder. [via Apartment Therapy] Update on Feb. 1, 2015: This product seems to have been discontinued.




P.O.M. Stockholm also has a magnetic key rack - with hidden magnets. You can buy it here.




Or, instead of a magnetic key rack, you could get a magnetic key chain - and keep your keys on the refrigerator door, a metal desk, etc. [via Better Living Through Design]




Moving beyond the magnets, here's another simple key rack; you just stick a key into the slot.




And I'm quite taken with this pewter key rack.






Finally, while I wouldn't normally recommend a key cupboard - too many extra steps to open it up - this one from the Edward Barnsley Workshop is too beautiful not to share.

Related Post:
Giving the Keys a Good Home